Reading The Lightning Thief
by LightToYourDarkness
Summary: It's all in the title. All rights go to Rick Riordan for writing such an amazing series. I have added a new character. I'm sorry if she messes up the story line a little and that I added 1 or 2 new chapters. But pls read the story.
1. Prologue

Olympus-Winter Solstice:

"Mother Rhea always loved you best!"

"Zeus how dare you cheat on me again!"

"Who stole my wallet!?"

"Air disasters are better than sea disasters!"

"Hades how dare you kidnap my sweet and innocent Kore!"

"Oh that was 5000 years ago seaweed beard let it go!"

"_I like rats!"_

"Oh shut up!"

"Olympians mad…"

"Your haikus suck!"

A bright light came from the ceiling following 6 screams of terror.

"Save us!"

"I don't wanna die yet!"

"Pinecone face use your powers!"

"I don't know how death breath!"

"BLA-HAHA!"

"AHHH!"

Zeus used his powers to make a big cloud to catch the 6 teenagers, but well… 1 of them didn't make it..

"OWWW! Yah, you guys get a fluffy cloud while I get the cold, hard ground!"

"I guess you just have the worst of luck fish face."

"Oh shut up sunshine!"

The first to speak was a young man maybe 16 with messy black hair and sea green eyes, while the one he was talking to was maybe the same age as well but a girl with sandy blonde hair and blue eyes.

"Thanks dad…"

"It is pretty soft."

"Not now Zombie boy!"

"Oh shut up air head!"

The first to speak was maybe 15 but like the first boy she had black hair but she her eyes were electric blue, while the second one was maybe 13 or 14 with chestnut brown hair and brown eyes with a hint of insanity (just a little bit).

A girl with princess curled blonde hair rolled her grey eyes she looked maybe 16 years old and said

"Everyone it's not the time to fight we are in front of the Olympian Gods and Goddesses!"

"She's right you guys. Please stop fighting."

A boy… ehem a satyr said

"Ok…" The 4 teens said

Zeus looked miffed and kinda pissed off at the idiots teens.

"How dare you disrupt the Winter SOLSTICE!"

…SILENCE…

"Wait you didn't send for?!" green eyes asked

"Why would we you fool!? I should zap you right now for what you said!"

"Wait no Lord Zeus, pls don't blast him! I beg of you. We we were…"

Gray eyes was cut off by blue eyes and said

"KIDNAPPED! WE WERE KIDNAPPED BY A BRIGHT LIGHT!

All the Olympians raised their eyebrows in confusion but shrugged it off

"Then pls tell us who you are young one." Hestia asked hesitantly

"Wait! Before we tell our names pls tell us what year it is"

"2000" Poseidon said

"Great Kelp for brains you know what year it is." Athena said with shocked surprise

"Oh shut up Owl head..."

…SILENCE…

"*GASP* we've been sent back in time by 10 years!"

"Does that mean we're like time travellers now?" electric eyes asked confused yet shocked yet excited

"Oh yeah!" brown eyes yelled with joy

"How do you know you're telling the truth?" Artemis asked pointedly

"Well…" sea eyes started

But before he could answer a box fell from the sky and hit him square on the head.

"Yup he has the worst of luck."

"Oh shut up."

He said carrying the package while rubbing his head.

"Oh look there's a note you guys!"

Grey eyes said then took the note and read (red pronunciation) it.

**D****ear Olympians, Demi-gods, and Satyr,**

**We have sent 5 demi-gods and a satyr back in time to change the fate of others in the future. Please do not kill or at least try to hurt anyone and demi-gods please state your name, parentage, and title.**

**The Fates**

"So you future punks going to tell us who you are or am I going to kill all of you instead? Because I like the 2nd idea better." Ares asked

"*SIGH* Well I guess I'm 1st as usual. I'm Annabeth Chase daughter of Athena and Architect of Olympus."

"Annabeth is that really you?" Athena asked shocked yet over joyed that her daughter has been given such an honourable role.

"Yes mother it truly is me." Annabeth said and gave her mom a smile

"Well I guess I'm up next right… Well I'm Alice Holmes daughter of Apollo and student doctor of Olympus… For now of course… I guess…"

"Oh my us my daughter is so much better than yours Athena!" Apollo yelled in happiness while pointing his finger to Athena.

"Oh why don't you shut up Apollo." Athena said calmly…. a little

"I'm Grover Underwood Senior Protector and Lord of the wild."

"How dare you show your face to me? For what you have done to my daughter!" Zeus boomed

"Father Stop it I'm alive and breathing and yah I'm Thalia your daughter and Lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis."

"Thalia!? You're alive."

"Yes father I am."

"What happened to Zoe?" Artemis asked her

"It will be said soon milady."

"*Whistle lowly* Wow well I should introduce myself right? Well ok I'm Nico Di Angelo son of… uhm… Hades and the Ghost king. But before you all go bonkers. I was born before the pact."

All the Olympians looked shocked but shrugged it off. But Hades examined his son and thought on where Bianca was… If only he knew what happened... Well he will.

"I'm Perseus Jackson Hero of Olympus and uhm… Son of… uhm… Poseidon…"

"POSEIDON!" Zeus and Hades yelled and tried to tackle their brother but was held back by Ares, Hephaestus, Apollo, and Hermes

"Yes he is my son and do not be hypocrites brothers." Poseidon said to his brother

"Brothers pls stop fighting. There are demigod here and a package to be opened." Hestia said trying to meditate the fight over her younger brothers.

"Lady Hestia is right. Pls daughter do tell us what is inside." Athena said

"Yes mother" Annabeth said "They are books called… bwahaha this is amazing just priceless! Ok ok I'm sorry. It's called Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Titans Curse, The battle of the Labyrinth, and The Titans Curse."

"Great just great it's about me." Percy whined

"Awesome we're gonna read fish faces thoughts!" Alice said

"Hahaha very funny Alice."

"Of course so let's read the 1st chapter" She said than snatched the book from Annabeth

"Wait Alice before you read. We don't have anything to seat on or do you all want to seat on the ground?" Nico asked

"Oh sorry about that." Hestia said, snapped her fingers. Than 2 couches that fit 4 people each.

"Ok then." Thalia said, than all of them sat down. Thal Alice said…

"**I accidently vaporized my pre-algebra teacher…"**


	2. New Character Introduction

**Alice Holmes**

"My pride has just been shattered. Thanks a lot sparky!" - Alice yelling Thalia, in The Titans Curse

Alice Veronica Holmes is one of the main protagonists in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. She is a Greek demigod daughter of Apollo and Lillian Holmes. She is also the head counselor of Apollo's Cabin and the assistant doctor of Olympus studying under her father.

* * *

**Before Birth** "

I thought your father was a weirdo. Always sprouting out horrible poetry and kept on sassing me. Well you know I never go down without a fight so... I sassed him back." -Lillian talking to Alice, Percy, Annabeth, Grover, and Thalia, In The Eastern Boundaries **(Made it up, I'll just give out the summary after the Sea of Monsters)**

Alice's mother Lillian Holmes comes from a long line of very successful doctors and with noble roots. When coming home by walking for the first time from school bumped into Apollo, the god of the sun, music, poetry, etc. At first she thought he was a total weirdo that kept on making horrible poetry even going as far as to mock him and tell him that even thou he was a god she will not have any back talking against her. From that time on they started to have a strong friendship that bloomed into love.

**Childhood**

"Horrible step-father, good he died." -Alice talking about her step-father, In the Lightning Thief

When Alice was born her mother was forced to have an arranged marriage for their family could not be embarrassed by what happened to her mother. Her step-father as what she said, was a total snob and thought he ruled the world. She has said to have found out she was a demi-god when Annabeth, Luke, and Grover knocked on her door and just said she was a demi-god. "That was probably one of the most awkward 5 minutes of my life. Standing there with 3 total strangers that just told you, you were a demi-god."

* * *

**Percy Jackson and The Olympians The Lightning Thief - The Last Olympian ****Pls read this story to find out**

* * *

**The Lost Hero**

She was mentioned twice, by Annabeth saying that she left 2 days ago to find Percy and Thalia noting that she last heard of her when Alice was in Tennessee.

**The Son of Neptune**

She was seen in a flashback in where she official met Percy in The Lightning Thief when Octavian had told Percy he was a legacy of Apollo.

**The Mark of Athena**

**Sorry I haven't read it yet.**

* * *

**Personality**

"She looked liked she would kill him there and then. But Thalia and Grover were holding her back from killing the brat." -Percy noting some of Alice's personality, In The Titans Curse

She loves music and not a day can you not hear her singing a tune or seeing her listening to music. Yet she is prideful and egotistic, Alice has a knack of having short temper tantrums everyday. She is seen to have a lot of fights with Clarisse a daughter of Ares in many trivial thing.  
But she is mostly seen as a jokester always joking around in many ways then one.

"So how was the ride? Did anything?" -Alice, In The Lightning Thief

"Yah, saw one of my best friends almost getting. The bride's my best friend and well my best friends a he." -Alice, In The Sea of Monsters "

" . . . ." -Alice, In The Eastern Boundaries

"Yah our parents are Olympic players. My dad's a track n' field player if that helps." -Alice, In The Titans Curse

"Yah because coffee makes the world go round goaty." -Alice, In The Battle of the Labyrinth

"Oh yeah look at me for help because you guys can't sing. Well sing on your own dumb nuts. I'm not helping out!" -Alice, In The Last Olympian

* * *

**Fatal Flaw**

"Alice's fatal flaw is eternal pride. It's not like mine but for her it's like everything is revolved around her heritage and family." -Annabeth telling Percy about Alice's Fatal Flaw, In The Sea of Monsters

Alice's fatal flaw is Eternal Pride in ones self. She will not back down on any fight and seen to take jokes about herself and her family in many different horrible levels. She is seen to get mad a lot even when it's very simple joke that was told by other demi-gods or mythical creatures.  
It is best shown in The Eastern Boundaries where a Titan called her father a "Sissy little brat" getting her to throw a fit, that is all centered around her family heritage.

* * *

**Fears**

She is seen to be scared of the dark like most of her siblings and is seen the most in The Battle of the Labyrinth when they were trying to push her inside the Labyrinth.

* * *

**Appearance**

Alice has wavy sandy blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes like her father and has a Californian Tan or just plain old Apollo kid tan. She is tall and slim and is said can take you down when she's mad. She is noted to be very beautiful being called that by Percy and Grover many times in the book.

* * *

**Abilities and Tools ADHD: **Alice's supernatural alertness and keen senses that keep her ready for, and alive, in battle.

**Dyslexia: **Alice's brain is "hard-wired" for divine Ancient Greek instead of mortal languages.

**Fighting Skills:** She fights best with a bow and arrow being an Apollo kid. She is seen to be poor in fighting with a knife and sword.

* * *

**Demi-god Abilities**

**Excellent Archer:** Being a daughter of Apollo, Alice has excellent aim in archery.

**Biokinesis:** Alice can heal others when singing a hymn to her father. (In Ancient Greek)

**Photokineses:** Alice can create illusions, force fields, and balls of light. But in only minumum time limit.

**Musical Talent:** Alice as a daughter of Apollo is naturally gifted musician.

**Foresight: **Alice has a rare gift within her and is only seen in shortly in every book since The Titans Curse - The Last Olympian.

* * *

**Magical Items**

- She is seen to have a charm bracelet named Solare that her father has given her in the start of the Quest For The Master Bolt. Each charm turns into a: bow and arrow, a board, and when she wants to make fun of people a knife and sword. It also holds musical instruments like a guitar and piano.  
- A leather necklace with clay beads from every year at Camp Half-Blood.  
- A Pair of Daedalus' Wings after the fight in Daedalus' Workshop in the Labyrinth. They were damaged and had to be thrown away, to prevent mortals from seeing them.

* * *

**Relationships Friends:**

**Percy:** They are close friends since the start of their quest. But is seen to get into many fights with each other ones a week or sometimes daily. They are seen to joke around an tell each other a funny thought that they can make fun of.

**Annabeth:**They both see each other as sisters and are very close. They are seen to have fun by teasing each other. In The Last Olympian while Percy was fighting with Luke/Kronos she was holding Annabeth with Grover to protect her.

**Thalia:** They are close friends and seen to bond with each other even with their opposite personalities. This is mostly seen in The Titans Curse when they were in the Sun Chariot and in Hoover Dam.

**Rachel: **They are noted to be good friends are not yet seen to talk that much.

**Luke: **Alice does not talk to Luke properly since the Lighting Thief until The Last Olympian. Where she had asked him if she may heal his wounds.

**Family:**

**Lillian Holmes: **She is seen too love her mother very much and has a very strong mother-daughter relationship.  
Her mother is seen to greatly care about her daughter and always worries about her well being.

**Step-Father:** Nothing is shown about their relationship except that he was a horrible father figure in her childhood and that he is now dead.

**Apollo: **Alice at first has mix feelings about her father. Seeing him as incompetent and immature. But is seen to be grateful for the weapon/jewelry he has given her. Her views on her father changed in The Last Olympian and has now given new found respect for him, calling him dad then the occasional father or Lord Apollo. Since she became his student it is noted that she became a little more powerful. But has stopped training with him after the closing of Olympus to find Percy.

Apollo sees her as his pride and joy and has said that multiple times. He greatly cares about her and her siblings and is seen to try to be a good father to them all.

**Paternal Half-Siblings: **She is seen to have good relationship with them mostly seen with her second in commands Lee, Michael, and Will.

**Gods and goddesses**

**Dionysus:** He often gets Alice's name wrong, and seemed to care very little for her, despite being her camp director.

**Artemis:** She is seen to have a close connection with her aunt and has higher respect for her that her own father. She sometimes jokingly calls her, her favorite Olympian but after a few minutes of awkward silence she will finally burst out laughing and says it's her father. She is seen to have momentarily wanted to join the hunt but went against it saying that she had to take care of her sibling and other campers.

* * *

**Etymology**

Her name originated from Greece meaning Truth and Noble. Her father is the god of truth so it may have been centered around that.

* * *

**Trivia**

-She is the only known living demi-god who has mastered Photokineses.

-She is also the only living demi-god who has the power of foresight.

- Her birthday is on December the 1st

-Her astrological or Zodiac sign is Sagittarius

-She is the only Main Character to not have any romantic relationship with anyone

* * *

**Titles:** Student of Apollo Assistant doctor of Olympus

Counselor of Cabin 7

Daughter of Apollo

**Vital Statistics:**

**Gender: **Female

**Family: **Apollo (Father)

Lillian Holmes (Mother)

Unknown Step-Father

Other campers of Apollo's Cabin (Paternal half-siblings)

**Status:** Alive

**Eye color: **Blue

**Hair color: **Sandy blonde

**Heights: **5'10"

**Others: **

**Affiliation: **Olympus

Camp-Half Blood

**Weapons: **Bow and Arrow

Solare

**Species: **Demi-God

**Home: **Camp-Half Blood

California

**Greek/ Roman form:** None

**Appearances: **The Lightning Thief

The Sea of Monsters

The Eastern Boundaries

The Titans Curse

The Demi-God Files

The Battle of the Labyrinth

The Last Olympian

The Ultimate Guide

The Lost Hero (Mentioned)

The Son of Neptune

The Mark of Athena

**Quests: **The Quest for the Master Bolt

The Quest for the Golden Fleece

The Quest to the East

The Quest for Artemis

The Quest for Daedalus

* * *

Is my OC a mary-sue to any of you? If she is please comment and tell me.


	3. I accidentally vaporized my pre-algebra

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

"Who does?" Thalia asked

"It can't really be that bad to be a demigod?" Hera asked

"It's worst."

All the Olympians except Artemis (Remember she is a virgin goddess) glared at her. It was all her fault they cannot visit their children.

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is:**

"Percy giving advice?" Nico said "Run for your life it's the apocalypse!"

"Hahaha very funny Nico." Percy said "Now shut up!"

**close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

"Will that work?" Alice ask

"Yes, but it will only work for some time. All demigods must know their heritage." Athena said

"Oh great, I was going to go back to my home here and stop it from happening." Alice jokingly said

Everyone laughed of course except Apollo. Even thou it was a joke it was really hard to take it in.

**Being a half-blood is dangerous.**

"Check" Percy said

**It's scary.**

"Check" Annabeth said

**Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

"Correctamundo" Nico said

All the Olympians who has kids looked down and remembered all of their children who had died and who had thought they didn't love them.

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think its fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

"Why would mortals read this?" Demeter asked

"It must be written for mortals and demigods to read." Annabeth answered

"I agree with my daughter." Athena said

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages—if you feel something stirring inside—stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

"It's too late for us now Percy." Alice said

"Sunshine you know you're talking to a book?" Annabeth asked amused by her friends antics

"Of course I do Owl head now shut up."

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

"You didn't warn us!" Hermes and Apollo yelled

"You both are Gods! You don't need to be warned!" Artemis yelled and started to punch both of them.

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

"Hello Percy I'm Hermes, and the only thing I know about you is that you don't make really good advice and that if you do all your friends scream in fear."

Everyone laughed at what he said. Even Percy but he had a light blush on his face.

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

**Am I a troubled kid?**

"Yes!" Grover and all the demigods of course except Percy yelled

Percy's blush darkened. While Poseidon thought about how his sons life is in the future.

**Yeah. You could say that.**

"You even agree with us Kelp head!" Thalia said

"Shut up Pinecone face." Percy said

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan— twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

"That sounds fun." Athena and Annabeth said dreamily

"No it sounds like torture." Poseidon said

"Oh shut up Kelp breath!"

"Make me Bird brain."

**I know—it sounds like torture.**

Alice said before they get into a big fight.

"Like father like son." Hestia said

Both Poseidon and Percy looked at each other and smiled.

**Most Yancy field trips were.**

**But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

"Who's Mr. Brunner?" Aphrodite asked

"You'll see milady." Grover said

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armour and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

"You sleep in class?" Athena asked

"Uhhhh…"

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

**Boy, was I wrong.**

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway.**

All of them laughed loudly

"Then what were you aiming for than?" Hermes asked

"Uhhh…."

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.**

"No pls tell us more!" Apollo yelled

"Yah tell us more!" Hermes said

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

"Ewww…" All the girls said

"Who even eats that?" Aphrodite asked

"Nancy, In what it is written down in the book." Athena said in disgust

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled.**

"Thanks Percy feeling the love." Grover mumbled

"I don't think of you like that now G-Man" Percy whispered to him

**He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

"You're ruining your cover satyr." Dionysus said

"Sorry sir"

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

**"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

"Do it!" Ares yelled

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

"Stupid satyr" Ares said

"What is it today? Pick on the satyr day?"

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

**"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

"Again stupid satyr"

**"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there.**

"You'd deck a girl?" Alice asked

"Nancy wasn't a girl she was a monster." Percy said

"What!"

"In human terms"

"Oh ok…"

**In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

"Longer that that boy." Athena said

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old.**

"A leather jacket? On a 50 year old hag? Ewww!" Aphrodite said

** She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn.**

"No that's Nico." Thalia said

"Oh shut up Lightning bolt."

"Make me Zombie boy."

**She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

"Seriously Grover?" Annabeth asked

"Stop picking on me!"

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"**

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

"Uhh duh"

"Shut up Alice."

:3

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

**"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

"It has to be that one really?" Demeter asked

"That was a horrible life." Hera said

"I agree with my sisters." Hestia said

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied.**

**"And he did this because ..."**

**"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god,**

"GOD!" All the Olympians and Hades yelled

"He just wishes he's as cool as us!" Apollo said

"Family, Mr. Brunner must have corrected him. So please calm down." Hestia said

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

"See family"

**"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead.**

"Because our brother looks just like a rock." Poseidon said

"The rock was better than him." Hades said

"Yah in throwing and playing around."

"Oh why don't you both shut up!"

**And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"**

**"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

"Well it was good you didn't live it." Hera said

**"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

"Did you just say the biggest war in all of history into 1 simple stupid sentence?" Athena asked pissed off at the sea spawn.

"Yah"

**Some snickers from the group.**

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

**"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

"Busted" Apollo, Hermes, and Ares said

**"Busted," Grover muttered.**

"Oh my us we think like goats!" Apollo shrieked

Hermes and Ares looked pretty weirded out.

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed her face even brighter red than her hair.**

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

"Or a horses ears." Nico said

"Nico you're talking to a book." Alice said

"You talked to the book too Alice."

"Touché"

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

**"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

"When are guys never doofuses?" Artemis asked

"Oh come on sis don't be mean."

"Don't call me sis you idiot!"

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming.**

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go— intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

**"About the Titans?"**

"Seriously fish face."

"Give me a break Sherlock I was 12!"

"I wasn't that stupid when I was 12!"

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

"Duh…"

"I said give me a break!"

**"Oh."**

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry; this guy pushed me so hard.**

"He's a teacher Seaweed brain."

"Yah yah whatever you say Wise girl."

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armour and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped.**

"Cool…" All the immature gods (Apollo, Hermes, and Ares) and the demigods awed

**But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C— in my life. No—he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better and I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

"He must have been." Hestia said sorrowfully

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York State had been weird since Christmas.**

**We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, and wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

"What are you 2 girls fighting about now?" Hades asked

"Sorry brother but I'm not the girl, that's Zeus with a cup full of melodrama." Poseidon said

"Both of you shut up!" Zeus boomed

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

"Is she 1 of your children Hermes?" Aphrodite said

"Oh pls no. She's too ugly to be my child and I would never name my child Nancy and seriously Bobofit What the Tartarus?!"

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius."**

"Of course you're not my child sea spawn." Athena said cockily

"Shut up bird brain!" Oh you know who said that

**"No! That he knows he's not perfect."**

**"Oh,"**

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

Laughter rang throughout the room

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

"Mama's boy" Ares taunted

"And why is that bad?" Hera asked glaring at her son

"Nothing mother"

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

"Nice" Hephaestus

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

All of the demigods except Percy gasped

"How dare she!" Annabeth yelled

"Isn't this the past? Why don't we kill her now?" Alice asked

"I agree with Alice!" Thalia said

"No one does that to goat boy no one" Nico said

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

"Disgusting" Aphrodite said

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"**

**"—the water—"**

**"—like it grabbed her—"I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey—"**

"That's really getting old" Hermes said

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

"Rule# 14: Never guess your punishment." Hermes said

"There are rules?" Percy asked

"Ahh.. duh.."

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me I pushed her."**

"Never knew you had the guts to do that." Nico teased

"I have many guts!"

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But—"**

**"You—will—stay—here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

**"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

"Bitch" Thalia said

"Thalia Grace, how dare you swear!"

"Sorry father!"

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

"Oh yeah like that's scary." Ares mocked

"Oh you should see it." Annabeth said

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

"Well duh she's a…" Nico was cut off by Thalia's hand covering his mouth

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counsellor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

**I wasn't so sure.**

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

"No one can be so absorbed with a book."

"And you're talking Owl head."

"Oh don't you start Barnacle beard!"

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

"No shit Sherlock" Thalia said

"Hey! That's Alice!"

"Oh now you don't start Fish face!"

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

Poseidon was sweating cold bullets of sweat.

'What is my son doing?' he asked himself

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...**

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

"Get away with what?" Hermes asked

"We're almost there now shut up!" Artemis hissed

"Don't need to be hissy. Must be the time of the month"

His face was then hit by a flying wolf that started mauling him.

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

**I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

"Seriously what is wrong with you?" Hera asked her husband

"I seriously don't know."

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

"PERCY!" Annabeth yelled

"Hey I'm no Athena kid don't blame me!"

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't..."**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shrivelled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

"You sent a Fury against my son!" Poseidon boomed

"Now come down brother this is in the future and remember we cannot kill or maul anyone!" Hades said

**Then things got even stranger.**

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

"He used Anuklemus in school… A mortal school?" Alice asked

"Yah he used it mostly inside the classroom."

"Well then"

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

"Sissy!" Ares yelled

"A sissy that kicked your ass." Grover muttered softly

The demi-gods that heard him gave a big smirk. The Olympians looked at the weirdly but shrugged it off.

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

"WOOH!" Everyone yelled

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of ! Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand. Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

"Who?" Poseidon asked

**I said, "Who?"**

He smiled in how close his and his sons answers were.

**"Our teacher. Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?" But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

"You are the worst liar in the world satyr you need lessons." Hermes said

"Yes m'lord"

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

"Seriously! What got your suit in a twist?" Hera asked (yelled)

"For the last time woman I don't know!"

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

**"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

"Now he knows how to lie. See satyr? That's how you lie."

"Yes m'lord"

**"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"Well that chapter's finish who wants to read next… Annabeth wanna read…" Alice teased waving the book near Annabeth's face

"Oh give me that you idiot!" Annabeth said and grabbed the book out of Alice's hand

"Oh don't get so scratchy Annie."

"Don't call me Annie!"

"Whatever"

"*gulp* ok next chapter…"


	4. Three old ladies knit the socks of death

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly.**

**This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

"The power of the Mist… Amazing!" Apollo said

"Why can't he be normal." Artemis asked herself

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

"'Cause you are." Nico said mockingly

"Why don't you just go die!" Percy yelled

"I thought he was already dead." Thalia said teasingly

**It got so I almost believed them—Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

**Almost.**

**But Grover couldn't fool me.**

"Saytr!" Hermes yelled

"I know sir."

"You're going to my cabin and get my children to teach you lying techniques."

"Yes sir."

**When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, and then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

**Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.**

"Ahhh duhh…. Fish face you are seriously idiotic."

"For the last time Sherlock, give me a BREAK!"

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

"Horrible it was truly horrible." Annabeth muttered to herself

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy.**

Everyone glared at Zeus

"Hey! I don't even know what's going on in the future!" Zeus yelled

**One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

"Well thank you Lord Zeus." Alice said

"Huh why?"

"My step-father was in one of those flights."

"And you're thanking me why?"

"He was an idiot in so-o-o many levels."

"Ok.."

Apollo looked worried at Alice. Is her step-father really like that. Is Lillian ok too.

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs.**

"Seaweed brain!"

"Hey!"

**I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

"You must have been an idiot then… Wait your still an idiot." Alice mocked

"Oh yeah mock the fish… Wait no"

"You finally agreed that you were and are a fish."

"Shut up!"

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

"It means…" Annabeth and Athena was cut off by everyones laugh

"You go Percy!" Hermes cheered

"Yah you go call him an old sot!" Ares Cheered as well

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

"Ahhhh…" All the goddesses cood

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

Alice glared at the book while Grover growled

"I never knew goats growled." Alice said A smirk growing on her face

"Very funny Bla-ha-ha."

**And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods outside my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend,**

"Thanks Perce."

"No problem Grover."

**even if he was a little strange.**

"I take that back."

"Sorry"

**I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

"Thanks for your confidence in me"

"Sorry"

**I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for.**

"WHAT! You only studied for 1 subject!" Athena yelled

"Ehh.."

**I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room.**

"*Gasp* How dare you treat a book like that!" Athena and Annabeth yelled

"Ehh…"

"You're an idiot all your remarks aren't even words." Alice teased

"Ehh.."

"He's a screw up mess that never listens to anyone." Thalia said

(LOL One Direction Tell me a lie semi-quote)

**Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon,or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

"Well now he knows." Nico said

"WHAT!" Poseidon yelled

His heart started to pace really quickly. 'What's going to happen to my son in the future' he asked himself.

"Nothing " Nico said quickly

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

"Ouch!" Aphrodite squeaked

"How do you know?" Hera asked

"Hermes.." She said lowly glaring at a fidgeting god

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

"Good" Athena and Annabeth said lowly

Percy started to hide behind Alice and Thalia that were smiling wickedly at Percy and push him to the floor.

"Man up Percy" Alice said

"Or are you just a weak little fish?" Thalia added

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before.**

"I see why you fail." Annabeth said

"Pls kill me now."

"My pleasure." Ares said poofing up a chainsaw

"Don' .Dare" Poseidon said lowly, holding his Trident firmly

Ares started cowering behind his throne in fear of getting soaked.

**Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

"Ahhh…" All the goddesses cooed again

"Oh you do care." All the gods teased with high voices

"At least he cares!" Thalia yelled and held a pointed look at the gods

All of them looked at her shocked. An awkward silence hung in the air until…

"You go girl!" Alice yelled happily

Everyone laughed at the up bringing

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said,**

**"... worried about Percy, sir."**

**I froze.**

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper, **

"Yah, you're not." Nico said sarcastically

**but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

"Ok his right there." Thalia said

"Aha!"

"Can't you say words?"

"Oh shut it Sunny."

**I inched closer.**

**"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too—"**

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

"A lot more" Annabeth said

**"But he may not have time. The summer solstice dead line— "**

"Summer solstice deadline?" Artemis asked

"It will all be told in the book milady." Thalia replied

"Of course thank you."

**"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

**"Sir, he saw her... ."**

**"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

**"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

"You didn't fail Grover it was my decision." Thalia said

"Yah but still…" Grover was cut off by Zeus yelling

"I agree it is his fault you gad to risk your life daughter!"

"Can you shut up about that! It was my decision to risk my life for my friends! So just shut up about this topic!"

"Daughter I…"

"Good for nothing father." She muttered, but it did not miss the hearing of her father

Zeus looked down 'Am I really a good for nothing father?'

**"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall—"**

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

"Now you need sneaking lessons. Go with your friend to my cabin and tell them I sent the both of your for training." Hermes said

"Whatever"

"You finally said a word!"

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

"What is he doing out of disguise?" Dionysus asked

"You were listening?" Percy asked him

"Yah whatever" He said and poofed up a wine magazine

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door.**

**A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, and then moved on.**

"That sounds kinda scary." Apollo said

"Like the ones in horror films where the monster eats all the kids… oops sorry." Hermes said

"Non taken" Grover and the others said

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

**"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."**

**"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

**"Don't remind me."**

"How many tests do you guys even take?" Alice asked

"Too many to count."

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

"Do you think he'll for that dear satyr?" Hestia asked

"No mi 'lady but I thought it might work."

**"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

**"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

**"Just... tired."**

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression,**

"He can also read your emotions." Annabeth said

"Well I know now."

**and started getting ready for bed.**

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam,**

"Three hours…" All the demigods except Annabeth said

"Yes three hours. Three hours of living Tartarus." Percy and Grover replied

**my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

**"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."**

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

"Bitch" Thalia muttered so no one may or can hear her

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

**"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

**My eyes stung.**

**Here was my favourite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

"Ouch.." Everyone but Percy whispered

"Yah ouch"

**"Right," I said, trembling.**

**"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be—"**

**"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."**

**"Percy—"**

**But I was already gone.**

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

"Percy didn't we have this talk already?" Alice asked

"Oh yeah… Alice can you tell it to me again." Percy asked

"But there here."

"Oh come on."

"What is it?" Annabeth asked

"Ok" Alice said "When does guys tell you "Hey my dad's a Doctor" Hey my dad's a Politician" "Hey my dad's the president of the United States of America" Tell them… wait who's perspective are we going for?"

"Yours"

"Oh…ok… I'll tell them "Hey, my dad's the Greek god of the sun. I think you mortals can't beat that!"

There was a silence for a while. Than everyone I mean everyone started to laugh like there's no tomorrow.

"Ok ok why don't we go back to the book." Athena said

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

**"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

"Bastards." Thalia

"Thalia language" Zeus boomed

"Yes father"

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen.**

**Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

The whole room was echoing with laughter.

"I almost peed my pants there." Grover said

That caused them to all laugh loudly again

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

"Uhg… What is wrong with you?! Rule# 22 Don't confess!" Hermes yelled

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

**"Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"**

"Oh come on!"

"I'm sorry! But I'm not your child!"

"Even so! Stop confessing nonsense!"

**He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers …"**

**"Grover—"**

**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..."**

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

"See even he agrees with me."

"Yes sir"

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer."**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes,**

"Why is it even in, in that font?" Athena asked

"I like to see all your children try to read it." Dionysus said and then went back to his magazine

All the Olympians (except Hera) with Hades and Hestia glared at him

**but I finally made out something like:**

**Grover Underwood**

**Keeper**

**Half-Blood Hill**

**Long Island, New York**

**(800) 009-0009**

**"What's Half—"**

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like if I want to come visit your mansion."**

**He nodded. "Or...or if you need me."**

**"Why would I need you?"**

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

"Ahh duhh" Alice said

"Grover I'm sorry about that and Alice stop making me look like a fool!"

"It's ok buddy"

"You're the one that makes yourself look like a fool idiot!"

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.**

All the girls awed while all the boys made faces

**"Grover," I said, "What exactly are you protecting me from?"**

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs.**

"Ewww… That's disgusting" Aphrodite squeaked with disgust

Everyone made faces of disgust

**The driver cursed and steered the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

**We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. **

"How dare they do that to nature." Demeter said

**On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

Everyone gasped

"You met The Fates!" both Poseidon and Annabeth yelled

"Why haven't you ever told us?!" Alice, Nico, and Thalia asked

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

"Nooo!" Poseidon yelled and started to cry

"Dad I'm still here." Percy said comfortingly to his father

"Then who's life force was the one cut?" Poseidon asked

All the people from the future paled. They all knew who's life force that was cut it was….. Luke's

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"**

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

"Not funny Percy not funny" Annabeth said

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

"You think like a goat!" Nico yelled happily

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

Everyone's breathe hitched

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

**"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

"Get inside the bus! Everyone yelled

**"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

"Seaweed Brain." Thalia hissed.

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic.**

**Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

"Oh gods what have done to him?" Alice asked

"You mean Oh Fates princess?" Apollo asked

"Oh yeah…"

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**"Grover?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"What are you not telling me?"**

"A lot" Grover mumbled

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost—older.**

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

**"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

**"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

"Grover!"

"I'm sorry!"

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

"Grover!"

"Please don't kill me!"

**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

**"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

"Yah you promised." Grover said

"Sorry you were freaking me out." Percy said

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

**No answer.**

**"Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

"Yes" Athena said

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"Blue bells" Percy said

"What?" Grover asked confused at what his friend said

"I would want blue bells on my coffin."

"Oh just shut up."

"So who's reading next?" Annabeth asked

"Me" Grover said

"Ok then" She said and passed it to Grover

"**Grover unexpectedly loses his pants"**

"Oh come on!" He yelled

Everyone started to laugh


End file.
